Raindrop Echo Designs: October 2011

Whimsy Stamps new product: Shape EZ by TLC!

Welcome to the Shape EZ by TLC blog hop!

If you would like to hop along with us today, please CLICK HERE to start the hop at Debbie's blog

We are extremely excited to announce the arrival of Whimsy Stamps newest product line! Today Whimsy Stamps are launching their brand new line of templates and cut files called SHAPE EZ by TLC.

Whimsy’s very own Tammy Louise Cunliffe is the super-talented artist behind this new line, and she has designed some brilliant templates and cut files for making one-of-a-kind cards, projects, gifts, and more! These are downloadable templates and each file includes a JPG, PNG, PDF, and SVG version of the template along with how-to instructions. Each product is hand crafted and tested by artist Tammy Louise Cunliffe.

Whimsy Stamps is releasing 6 fabulous Shape EZs today:

Shape EZ Dress

Shape EZ Flip Ornament

Shape EZ Flower Swirl

Shape EZ Gift Pouch

Shape EZ Poinsettia

Shape EZ Rolled Bag

Some of the Whimsy DT have been busy creating with these templates to celebrate this debut release with a BLOG HOP! The hop starts today (Monday October 31st noon EST) and ends on Sunday November 6th at noon EST.

For this hop we have several different prize draws. One lucky hopper will win a grand prize of a $25 gift certificate (hosted at Tammy Louise's blog). In addition to this, we have hidden several surprise prizes throughout the hop, so be sure to leave a comment on every post along the hop to be entered into the surprise draws. All winners will be announced on the Whimsy Stamps blog after the blog hop has ended.

After seeing Tammy Louise's beautiful sample (which you can see in Issue #4 of the Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Magazine), I decided to give the Gift Pouch a go. It was super easy to assemble and it was done in a matter of minutes.

Template: Whimsy Stamps Shape EZ Gift Pouch; Paper: DCWV; Embellishments: WOC flowers, May Arts ribbons and twine; Tools: Cricut

Now it's time to hop on over to Ellie's blog where she has a wonderful creation using one of the Shape EZ templates!

Finally, here is a complete blog hop list in hopping order:

Debbie Eastman
Ann Vento
Ellie Stover
Iris Wiechmann
Stephanne Maraver
Sylvia Blum
Tammy Louise Cunliffe

Thank you so much for hopping with us and I hope you enjoy our new release!

My first explosion box

Hi everyone! Wow, Fridays come so quickly these days, which is a good thing in my opinion :)

Today I'm sharing my first explosion box! I know, I'm a little late in the game. Everyone started making these a while ago, but I had never made one until last night :) It was great to really do some cutting and gluing instead of spending time coloring. If I hadn't mentioned, I like the "putting the card together" part much more than the "get the image colored" part.

Anywho, all the papers (except for the stripped paper on the outside of the box) were from the Echo Park Season's Greetings 6x6 paper pad. All the little titles (is that what they're called?) are from the MME Lost and Found Christmas 12x12 Accessory Sheet. With the papers, the accessory sheet, and some Spellbinders dies (which SPS has for great prices), the box was pretty easy to put together! The rest is just frills (flowers and ribbon)

I actually liked how it turned out, but boy was it difficult to photograph especially during nighttime when I had to try to work with my little white board. It definitely won't be the last time I make one of these :) Hope you like it!

Papers: Echo Park Season's Greetings 6x6 paper pad; Embellishments: MME Lost and Found Christmas 12x12 Accessory Sheet, May Arts ribbons, Wild Orchid Crafts flowers; Tools: Spellbinders dies, Cuttlebug, ATG Gun (refills available here), and Tonic Guillotine Cutter

Merry and Bright

Hi everyone! It's another Monday and I hope you are all having a good start to your week :)

I had a good weekend. I got to relax, sleep in, went to the movies, got addicted to The Walking Dead and caught up with all the episodes, and made a card for fun! Got some homework done, too. Hope yours was okay, too!

So, here's the card I made for fun. Sorry for the super dark photos. I tried to lighten them, but the blending on the skirt would turn out so horrible! It would just look like I have a big blotchy light spot in the middle. This is the best I could do to keep it looking as close as possible to how it looks in real life. Does anyone have any advice on how to take decent photos that stays true to what your colored image is supposed to look like?? I'm terrible and I feel bad since I have a fairly good camera (Nikon D90), but I don't know how to take advantage of it. I usually take photos at night or under low light. Please help!

The card uses the sketch at The Sugar Bowl. There is an optional challenge of Clean and Simple and I'm not sure if this card fits. It doesn't have very many embellishments, but the stitching makes it look busier than it is. I bought a few Sugar Nellie images a while back and haven't found the time to use them. I love the Simply Sassy range! I know the illustrator now does digis, but I just love rubber stamps :)

Stamps: Sugar Nellie Puppy Love and Whimsy Stamps Holiday Mini Postage Stamps; Coloring medium: Copics on X-Press It Blending Card; Papers: Echo Park - Holly Jolly Christmas 6x6 Paper Pad; Embellishments: WOC flower; Tools: Whimsy Stamps Vines Die, Elegant Flourishes Die and Mini Postage Stamp Die, sewing machine, Tim Holtz distressing tool

Well that's it for me today :) Hope you have a great rest of the week!

Race to 100! And win a rubber stamp set!

Well, I gave in. I've created a Raindrop Echo Designs Facebook page where you can find all the latest Raindrop Echo Designs news as well as inspiration to use those sentiments, dies, etc. There will also be occasional giveaways of rubber stamp sets, digital stamp sets, and custom designs so please come and stop by :)

To celebrate, and to get more Likes, lol, I am having a giveaway!

Race to 100!

When I reach 100 "Likes" I will give away the Whimsy Stamps Birthday Letter Seals rubber stamp set pictured below to a random fan.

To go to the Facebook page, you can click the link above, or the picture to the right or the link on the left sidebar. Lots of ways to get there :) The winner will be announced after we reach 100 Likes, whenever that may be!

Prize

Also, I would LOVE to see your creations there using ANY Raindrop Echo Designs sentiment/die/etc from any company and you are even welcome to share designs using my freebies. The goal is to inspire each other!

And BIG HUGE thank you to all the designers who allowed me to post their creations on my page for others to be inspired by. Your support means the world to me :)

Hope to see you at the Facebook page!

SPS Weekly Post!

Eeek!! So sorry for the tardiness of this post - it totally slipped my mind! Hubby and I were reorganizing some of my crap stuff, I mean craft stuff, and I was overwhelmed by the thought of how much I had that I might not be able to use before I croak. Strange thought I know.

Anyway, enough rambling and on to my Shop Pumpkin Spice creations for the week! These creations were featured in Issue #2 of the Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Magazine (which is still such a fabulous issue to refer to for tutorials, tips and inspiration).

This first card uses Crate Paper Neighborhood Collection 6" x 6" paper pad and the stamp is from Whimsy Stamps called Monkey Toes (too adorable). It's paired up with a sentiment from the Party Mini Letter Seals set. The image was colored with Distress Inks.

Stamps: Whimsy Stamps Monkey Toes and Party Mini Letter Seals; Papers: Neighborhood Collection 6" x 6" paper pad; Coloring medium: Distress Inks on watercolor paper; Embellishments: WOC flowers, trim; Tools: Spellbinders dies, Cuttlebug

The second card uses papers from the fun Echo Park Summer Days Collection. I just love this fun and bright collection! The images are a combination of Whimsy and Make it Crafty - Bart Goes Golfing and Rainbow Dandelion Landscape. The cute little dragonfly chipboards are from MiC also. The image was colored with Copics.

Stamps: Whimsy Stamps Bart Goes Golfing and Make it Crafty Rainbow Dandelion Landscape; Papers: Echo Park Summer Days Collection; Coloring medium: Copics on Make it Colour Blending Card; Embellishments: ribbon, MiC dragonfly chipboard, Stickles

Thanks for stopping by!!

Whimsy Stamps October Showcase Day 3

Hello and welcome to Day 3

of our October Rubber Die Release Showcase!

On Wednesday (October 12), Whimsy Stamps released this month's rubber designs and new shapeology dies. From then until 19 October the Whimsy Stamps DT and Special Guests are showcasing these fabulous new stamps and dies with a daily mini blog hop.

Each mini blog hop has a new release prize hidden somewhere along the way and you have 24hrs to enter each prize draw.

To be entered into today's mini blog hop prize draw, be sure to leave a comment on ALL of the DT's posts listed below by 12.00 PM EST tomorrow. All winners will be announced on the Whimsy Inspirations blog after 12.00 PM EST on 19 October.

To take a peek at today's fabulous new release creations by the Design Team, please click on the links below...

Ann Vento
Ellie Stover
Erin Bailey
Iris Weichmann
Minna Paajanen
Simonne Clay

For today's creation, I've used the sweet and sassy Mistletoe by KennyK! She's so fun and the outfit is just awesome. I also used sentiments from the Holiday Pennants and layered it on top of the Banner Pennant Dies. It tried to go with some fun colors for the card since I think she deserves it :) I dotted some pearls using the Viva Decor Pearl Pen to make it look like snow, but it doesn't show up very well in the photos : /

Stamps: Whimsy Stamps Mistletoe by KennyK! and Holiday Pennants; Coloring medium: Copic on X-Press It Blending Card; Paper: BasicGrey Out of Print; Embellishments: WOC flowers, May Arts net ribbon, Viva Decor Pearl Pen; Tools: Whimsy Stamps Banner Pennant Dies, Making Memories Distressing tool (the best distressing tool in my opinion, and I have it all!)

Remember that the entire new release is available to buy right now from the Whimsy Stamps store along with all your Whimsy favourites.

Also, another reminder that Issue #4 of the Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Magazine will be released on 19 October! I am really excited about this issue! We're working on it this weekend, lol. Talk about last minute, eh? Crossing my fingers that I can get by on less-than-normal sleep ;)

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check the Whimsy Inspirations blog tomorrow for more new release creations!

SPS Weekend Specials! ENABLER ALERT!

Okay ladies and gent (I only know one who may read this, sweet dear Alberto, hehe)!

Are you prepared to be enabled?

Feast your eyes on a new feature that Shop Pumpkin Spice will be having: WEEKEND SPECIALS. If you didn't think SPS's prices couldn't get any lower, well, you were wrong! Every weekend there were will be two or more specials that you probably won't be able to resist. I'm telling you, these deals will be awesome.

Check out the specials below and run, don't walk, to the Shop Pumpkin Spice store!

This only works out to $3.33 a pad!!

Weekend Specials

Pink {INK} Sketch #8

I'm back!

Whew, it's been a while since I've played along with our challenges at Pink {INK} Sketch, but I thought I should join in since this week we're using my sketch, lol. The gals have some fantastic samples to show you so please head over to the blog so that you can be amazed. Oh, and make sure to join in because we have a fantastic sponsor this week! It's none other than: Shop Pumpkin Spice!

The Shop Pumpkin Spice store carries a wide variety of papers, embellishments, and tools for all your papercrafting needs! They carry popular brands such as My Mind's Eye, Echo Park, Cosmo Cricket, and Spellbinders for at least 30% less than the suggested retail price! They also carry various twine colors from The Twinery at unbelievable low prices. Make sure to visit the store to see what amazing deals await! Free shipping over $50 for orders within the United States!

Shop Pumpkin Spice is generously offering a $20 gift certificate to the winner of this challenge:

Here's my sketch for this week:

It's not a bad sketch, right? I hope? So please join us for this challenge :)

Here's my take on the sketch using several products from the Shop Pumpkin Spice store. If you couldn't tell, I really adore these Echo Park Season's Greetings papers! Right now it seems that the store is out of the 6x6 paper pads (not surprised), but check back soon. The frame and the ornament are chipboard stickers from Echo Park - Season's Greetings 6x12 Chipboard. Gosh, they really do help make cardmaking a breeze. The round fancy doily looking die I used is a Spellbinders die, which is also available at SPS. As I mentioned before, the Spellbinder dies are a steal at SPS and she custom orders what you need so you are able to choose from the whole Spellbinders catalog!

Oh oh, and The Twinery is now available at SPS, too!! You can get 5 yards for $1.00, 10 yards for $1.50 or 20 yards for $2.80. Awesome huh?

Papers: Echo Park Season's Greetings; Embellishments: Echo Park - Season's Greetings 6x12 Chipboard, The Twinery Maraschino - Red & White Baker's Twine, WOC poinsettia flowers, AC brads, seam binding,; Tools: Spellbinders die, Marianne D's flourish die

Maraschino - Red & White Baker's Twine

Echo Park - Season's Greetings 6x12 Chipboard

Echo Park - Season's Greetings - Collection Kit - EP pre-package

Alrightey, enjoy the rest of your Friday (or Saturday) and thanks for sticking through my ramblings!

You and Me - Happy Days

Hello and happy Friday!

Thank goodness this week has come to an end. I'm so happy to be going into the weekend, but unfortunately, this weekend is going to mostly be work and school :( Oh well, I'm just hoping that it'll all pay off in the end!

Anywho, enough whining. Today's Shop Pumpkin Spice creation is a rather clean and simple one. I really love the colors on the Echo Park Happy Days collection and I wanted to highlight that in this creation. The stark contrasts between the blues, reds, yellows, and black in this collection really does, well, make me happy!

And if you haven't already read about me rave about the prices as Shop Pumpkin Spice, well, here's a reminder: Shop Pumpkin Spice has the lowest prices around when it comes to paper pads and Spellbinders, with free shipping for all domestic orders over $50! I like to save when I can (so that I can get more stuff, haha) so I just really love this store :)